Above the land of snow

[Thomas' Pov]

"Huff... huff..."

"S-Stella... shouldn't you r-rest for a bit?"

Her blue hair was already disheveled from having practiced for hours upon hours on end, continuing to torture herself in an attempt to make progress. It was lucky that we had the privilege of having an entire practice room to ourselves as it at least hid her desperation from everyone else.

It was the result of the machinations of her own mind, a desperation born out of wanting to be acknowledged by the one who had brought us here.

Yet, my friend only showed me a bright smile, hiding the pain beneath it.

"I'm fine, Thomas. Also, I don't have time to rest. I want to be able to stand by his side, and for that, I have no choice but to become stronger."

Even if I understood her intentions, it still didn't sit well with me to watch her like this. However, what could I do about it? In the end, I could only bite my tongue and watch. Spectating the friend who had already lost herself completely while living in an illusion.

And with that, the stones around her once again floated into the air, with her not caring about the blood that seeped out of her nose and mouth.

****

[James' Pov]

'They are already preparing their troops...'

Lingering in the air above the snow-filled capital of Kurat, Kuul, I was a bit surprised to see how far things had already escalated. No matter how subtle they were trying to act, it was still obvious from the large increase of armed beastmen and humans patrolling the streets what they were planning.

"Haaa... things are truly moving too fast. But I guess you wouldn't feel the same would you Ezral?"

A silky smooth voice came from behind me, giving away the woman who I already knew was there.

"I don't. In fact, I would say that I feel like things are moving a bit too slowly even for my taste. Now, wouldn't you enlighten me as to why you have come here, James? Could it be that you have finally decided to join us?"

Turning around, I was met by the sight of the insanely curvaceous demoness, her skimpy red dress contrasting the coldness around us. On her back, two red, almost purplish wings were proudly fighting against gravity, keeping her seductive body lingering in the air.

Under the comfort of my mask, it wasn't hard to swiftly absolve her delusion, "I'm afraid that that is not the case, Ezral. I'm merely here to inspect the progress of one of my opponents."

"Opponent...?"

*Don!*

Releasing a blood-chilling pressure around her, it was hard not to be affected. No matter how much progress I had made, she was still one of the demon counts, after all. It wasn't enough for me to suddenly lose myself or anything, but it was enough to make me a bit vigilant despite this body only being a clone.

Inspecting the smile that wasn't a smile on Ezral's lovely face, I made my way toward her, taking off my mask in the process. Though she flinched a bit, she still allowed me to put my hand on her cheek.

"Don't be like that, Ezral. It's not like you didn't know things would ultimately turn out like this, right?"

Her long, dark hair rustled a bit in the cold winds as she kept the fake smile plastered on her face.

"So you found a way to go against the contract then? I never thought that you would join the same mortals that cast you away, but I guess..."

"I am not going against the contract, Ezral, and I am not joining forces with the allied races."

Due to her confused face, it wasn't hard for me to deduce that she wasn't able to quite understand what I was saying. Which made sense as there was probably no one in this world who could have foreseen that I would create my own faction. Not even me.

With a quick flap of her wings, she created some distance between us, leaving my hand hanging in the air.

"You are truly insane, aren't you? But that's one of the things I like about you though."

"Ho? One of the things? It's understandable as I do have quite a lot of great qualities about me, but it still warms my heart to hear you say it, Ezral."

"Shut up! So, are you done here? Haven't you already seen everything you wanted to see?"

It was as entertaining as always to see the demoness get flustered as I teased her.

Putting my hand on my cheek, I pretended to ponder a bit.

"Hmm, that might be so. But isn't it strange, Ezral? How can it be that you are suddenly so proficient in military arts, so much that you have managed to more or less assemble an army just like that?"

Ezral flinched but as she realized who I was, it didn't even take a second for her body to relax again.

"Why are you acting like this if you already know, James?"

'So I was right...'

The reason behind my suspicion was quite straightforward. I already knew that Ezral's specialty didn't lie in military processes, which meant that someone else must've arrived here. And if that was the case, thinking about what they were currently doing, it could only be...

"Why didn't you tell me that a guest had arrived, Ezral...?"

I couldn't even sense the demon who had managed to get behind me, with the only thing giving him away being his low voice coming out from his mouth.

Turning around, I was met by the sights of a slender, yet well-built man with blood-red hair with matching eyes. His body was covered up by a very elegant black tuxedo and through his fierce smile I got to see the fangs of a predator.

'Beleth...'

I already knew of the demon in front of me from playing the game.

The spider in the web behind the demonic troops. The one behind the scenes who orchestrated the battlefield like a symphony, creating the melodies of blood that he desperately craved.

A military specialist who made up for his lack of individual power through his incredible military sense.

If he was here, there was no doubt that things had started moving for real. The war that would last for years upon years was finally about to begin and Beleth would undoubtedly act as the trigger.

"Keep those disgusting eyes away from me, human!"

"Huh...?"

It hadn't even taken a single moment before I could feel a hand around my throat, threatening to end my life in an instant. Or at least, threatening to end the life of sub-me.

"Beleth!"

Ezral also came up to us now, paling a bit as she realized what was happening. Which, in reality, was quite silly as she herself had tried to kill me several times already. Or maybe that was why her face paled, as she didn't want to be put in a situation where I would act more proactively due to being offended.

"So, this is the man you told us about, Ezral? The one who supposedly turned this world upside down?"

"Yes, that's..."

Not wanting to stay in this situation any longer, as it was quite uncomfortable to feel his hand around my neck, I activated my ability and allowed my throat to become mist as I created some distance between us.

"I am One, also known as James. A pleasure to meet you, Beleth."

A bit surprised to see just how easily I had escaped his grasp, Beleth took a quick look at his own hand before inspecting me a bit more deeply.

"You already know my name? How interesting."

He had instantly become a lot more vigilant after I gave away the fact that I knew who he was, creating a situation where he couldn't act recklessly unless he wanted to risk the world to know who he was.

Naturally, he should have also understood that no matter what he did, he couldn't stop me from exposing him if I so chose. But I had no plans of doing that.

"Don't worry, Beleth. I have no intention of revealing your existence to the world."

To this, he had but one question. A question that he posed in such a succinct and direct way that I couldn't help but respect him a bit.

"Why?"

There were no flowery words to decorate his question, and neither was there any unnecessary misdirection to hide it. Just a single, simple question that held the efficiency of a thousand.

And truth be told, it was hard to give him a good answer without giving away the fact that I already knew what was going to happen. But I also didn't want to ignore the question. Because that would be boring.

"Because I need your side to grow stronger, as strong as you can possibly become."

Of course, he didn't understand my words at all. Or rather, he couldn't understand why I would want such a thing.

Therefore, I put on my mask once again and told him the reason.

"Because only then will it be fun to tear you down."

*Poff!*